The Night Circus

To misquote Shakespeare: "The circus is the thing..."

In Erin Morgenstern's beautifully envisioned debut novel, the circus fills the reader's mind, to the point that I kept catching echoes of it in movies and TV ads for weeks after I finished it. I believe when I reviewed Beautiful Creatures I said that the setting (small Southern town) was as much a character in the book as the people were. The Night Circus takes that to a whole new level. It is enchanting. I want to knit myself a red scarf and go (read the book to understand that).

I decided to read the book after my friend Casey described it as her "adult Harry Potter." Wow. Since we share our passion for HP, I couldn't wait to discover another new and magical world.

But.

It wasn't that simple for me. Night Circus is a much more complex read, denser and with a structure that is less straight-forward. The author jumps between settings and years in a way that I found confusing, especially at first. The jumping around made it harder for me to sink into the feelings of the characters. And trying to imagine a "love story" spread over a span of 11 years with such limited contact is a stretch for me. In an interview with the author, she said the book didn't have a plot for a very long time. It had a PLACE, and some characters, long before it had a proper structure to tie it all together. Yes, I think it shows.

But, part 2.

It is still magical. The descriptions are lush. I suspect there is much more going on than I caught on my first reading. Surely something about finding yourself. And every now and then I would find a message that would ring so true I would have to stop to write it down. Much like some of the wisdom of Professor Dumbledore used to stop me and make me think, "Yes. This!"

"It feels as though the Bailey who entered the circus was an entirely different person than the one leaving it now....He wonders which is the real Bailey, for certainly the Bailey who spent hours in trees alone is not the Bailey...who makes friends with such interesting people without trying.
By the time he reaches the farm, he is sure that the Bailey he is now is closer to the Bailey he is supposed to be..."

I love that because I recognize it - I've had such evenings or experiences. Stages on the road to the me I'm supposed to be.

And here's one that speaks to the reader/writer in me -

" 'It is important,' the man in the grey suit interrupts. 'Someone needs to tell those tales. When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There's magic in that. It's in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words....There are many kinds of magic, after all.' "

So, The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern [512 pages, 950L, recommended ages 14-17, although I might go higher] - 8 bookmarks out of 10, for beautiful writing and a unique concept. It's a love story - sort of. It's a fantasy about magicians - but you don't really see the magic much. Mostly, it's a trip to the circus, perhaps as only a child could view the circus. Magical and full of wonder.

Note: While uploading this I ran across a review of The Night Circus by one of my favorite authors on Goodreads. You might want to go see what Maggie had to say - I thought it was pretty spot on. 

I'm back. Sorry I've been gone.

Last year around New Year's I made a commitment to read 52 books during 2014 and write reviews for them (reviews to be posted here).

Guess what?

I didn't make it. I read somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 books (I also didn't do a good job of tracking them). And I wrote exactly one review, in my journal, which I never got posted anywhere.

It was a pretty spectacular failure, as far as commitments go.

Ever one to punish myself, I decided to do nearly the exact same thing this year. I committed to read 52 books, but left out the commitment to post reviews.

So, of course, now I want to post them.

We'll see what happens. I've actually read 5 books so far this year (a very good start) and I have some sitting next to me, waiting to be read. But I don't want to start any more until I've written at least 2 reviews. I'll post the first one soon. The next will be a review over 3 books in the same series (I read them so quickly, I can't separate them out in my head, let alone in reviews). Then we'll see how we progress. Don't expect me to write about all of them. But maybe you'll see more from me than last year.

Which won't be hard, since I posted nothing last year.

Stay tuned....

Trying something new

I'm trying a new site called Narrable.com. It is a way of sharing a photo collection or slide show, and adding audio - mostly voices - to the photos. I just want to conduct a quick test here.

This is to say thank you to our sponsors for Newspapers in Education. It is not complete.

I miss reading.

I'm in the middle of a lot of work, a lot of things that take my time every day. I started J.K. Rowling's A Casual Vacancy, but haven't gotten past the middle. I still have Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys sitting, unloved and unread, at my bedside. :(

So until I can get back to reading, I leave you with the official movie trailer for Beautiful Creatures - to be released February 13, 2013. The final book in this series (#4) was just released. That makes the series 1/ Beautiful Creatures, 2/ Beautiful Darkness, 3/ Beautiful Chaos, and finally 4/ Beautiful Redemption.

Enjoy, and I'll be back someday, I promise.

...You other readers can't deny....

That sort of says it all, don't you think?

You're Never Too Old For SEUSS

Theodor Geisel - known internationally as the writer Dr. Seuss - is a legend in the world of children's picture books, not because his illustrations are the best (they've become so beloved, who cares?) but because of the rhythm and rhyme he brought to the language. [I must note that the previous statement is mine, and not necessarily the only opinion. In reading the Wikipedia article on him, it shows that his artwork was rather central to everything he did in life.]

Almost everyone, from pre-schoolers to near-retirees, can tell you about their favorite Dr. Seuss book - or books. They are classics, the touchstones of childhood, the memories of being read to or reading on our own for the first time.

And now there is a new book!!!

A Seussologist (expert on Dr. Seuss writings) re-discovered a series of stories that Seuss wrote and published in Redbook magazine in the early 1950's. Since magazines don't generally last 60 years, most people have never even heard of these stories. Seven of them have been collected into a new book called The Bippolo Seed, which will be published September 27th of this year.

And there ARE original Seuss drawings! The magazine stories included smaller drawings, that have been resized and recolored (see picture - you can just see a magazine with multiple illustrations, and one of them - in the top right - is reproduced larger in the book).

You can read a short article from the L.A. Times for information.

Sneaky Contest: For my students, who are just now being introduced to this blog - the first one of my students to comment on this blog with ANOTHER pseudonym (pen name) that Dr. Seuss used, and one of the titles published under that name, will receive a small prize from me. Remember, NEVER use your full name to post - try using your initials, part of your first name, or something else that is Internet safe. I'm calling this a sneaky contest, because I am only announcing it here. Let's see if any of you read this far.

Book Browsing in the Digital Age

When I was in school, there were a few tried and true ways to find a book that I wanted to read. I could go to the library and wander through the shelves. I could go to a bookstore and do the same thing. My friends could tell me about a book they liked. Or I could actually listen in class when someone gave a book review. But that was mostly it. I knew that big city newspapers published professional book reviews, but I didn't figure that we liked the same kind of books.

Things are a little different now.

Here's just one example. I get an email from Amazon with the "Best Books of..." lists. Usually, they send one every month, then one for the year. The monthly list has about 10 adult books, plus a Young Adult book, a picture book, and a middle grade book.

Here is information that I received in the August list:

The Young Adult literature pick for August is Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25. Here is their summary.

When Michael Vey finds Taylor, a cheerleader with special powers just like him, they embark on an investigation to determine why they're so different--but time is running out. There are others who want to control these special teens in Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25, a rollicking new thriller by bestselling author Richard Paul Evans.

If you click on the link to the Amazon page for this book, you can get all kinds of information - how long it is, professional reviews, customer reviews, and even take a look inside and read a short sample. But the thing that I've started really enjoying are the book trailers. They are like movie trailers (previews), short videos to build interest in the book. This is a newish thing, so they aren't all as good as movie trailers yet. And it doesn't mean that this book is being made into a movie, or that these are the actors. It's just a book trailer.



This is exactly how I discovered Beautiful Creatures, which was the highest ranked YA book on the Best 100 Books of 2009. I saw the list, I clicked the link, checked out descriptions, and watched the trailer.

It's a little different than browsing the shelves in the library. For one thing, I can do it in the middle of the night. Barefoot.